The Taliban has moved to ban women from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks, marking another blow to women’s access to public spaces in the country.
The Band-e-Amir park is host to thousands of visitors every year in Afghanistan, offering amazing spectacles for park-goers. However, women will not be allowed to take in the views any longer due to a ban announced this week.
Afghanistan’s acting minister of vice and virtue, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, recently made comments about women visiting the park, complaining that they were not properly wearing their hijab.
Shortly after the comments, Hanafi began asking security forces to stop women from entering the park.
“Going sightseeing is not a must for women,” Hanafi said.
Since the ban has been imposed, several advocacy groups have spoken up in defense of the nation’s women, including Heather Barr with the group Human Rights Watch.
“I’ve heard more than one Afghan woman talk about how next the Taliban won’t allow them to breathe,” Barr shared with The Guardian. “That sounds very hyperbolic until you see them doing things like actually trying to stop women from being outdoors and enjoying nature.”
The group described the ban as just another means to restrict the rights of Afghan women.
Among the other restrictions imposed since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 include the closure of most girls’ secondary schools, banning women from universities, and stopping many female Afghan aid staff from working.
Women have also been banned from going to gyms, bathhouses, and parks, according to Human Rights Watch.
“Step by step, the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison,” Barr shared.
Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, posted on social media about the ban, questioning why it was necessary.
“Can someone please explain why this restriction on women visiting Band-e-Amir is necessary to comply with Sharia and Afghan culture?” Bennett wrote.
The Taliban says that it respects women’s rights per the group’s interpretation of Islamic law and cultural customs of Afghanistan.
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